How To Talk To Users | Startup School

YC often says "talk to your users", but actually doing that is surprisingly tricky. YC Group Partner Gustaf Alströmer gives non-obvious advice on how to talk to both current and potential users, how to run a great user interview, and how to interpret the feedback in these conversations.

00:00 - Introduction
00:26 - Outline
00:42 - Best founders learn from their users
03:23 - Who should I talk to?
05:58 - How to interview potential customers
09:42 - Follow ups & Don't ask these questions
14:37 - MVP prototype session interviews
17:04 - Summary

#startup #entrepreneur #sales

[ycombinator]

What's your favorite question to ask potential users?

[dhawaljain]

'The Mom Test' is by far the best book in case someone wants to dive deeper on this topic.

[dannysheridan]

Top notch content! “Don’t ask them for features; focus on their problems.”

[chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) -
00:00 - Introduction
00:26 - Outline
00:42 - Best founders learn from their users
01:53 - Airbnb story
03:23 - Who should i talk to?
04:13 - Illustrate the process with a mock startup
04:37 - Plan
04:49 - Who will I speak with
05:09 - What I am looking to learn
05:58 - How to interview potential customers.
07:08 - Example customer interview
08:43 - Specific questions to ask when interviewing
09:42 - Follow ups & Don't ask these questions
11:13 - Focus on features instead of solutions.
11:41 - Examples - Gmail & Airbnb
12:41 - Next steps
13:33 - Is solving this problem valuable?
14:37 - MVP prototype session interviews
17:04 - Summary

[VishalakshiMuthuraman]

This definitely changed my perspective of talking to the user !! Thank you Gustaf and team

[mirceagogoncea]

Such a great talk! Thank you Gustaf and the Y Combinator team.

[harponHQ]

Can't more agreed Gustaf, simple reminder most PMs should keep in mind. Good job!

[InFocus_app]

Great video! I watched it twice - now and 2 months ago. Now I understand how this information is essential.

[kushalsheshadri]

A gold mine! You can avoid a lot of pain as a founder if you get this right at the early stages.

[mfarnell]

this is an excellent summary that took me many years to learn the hard way.

[HIDDENADHD]

Love that you created examples. Above and beyond!! 🎉

[Math_kru_earng]

i like the way you show the real sample when you talk to users, thanks!

[luisvelarde]

Thank you Gustaf and team! Loved the talk!

[domen]

This is really good! Wish there was more content like this!

[santoshpanda]

Great content, thank you very much for bringing this out.

[SereneNatureMelody]

Thank you so much for your clarification. I have now some foundations to progress. 🥰

[andy_ppp]

Thanks so much for this video it really clarified the thinking here.

[marvinfok]

Probably when Airbnb started, they are passionate about their users, but not anymore. I work overseas and a regular Airbnb customer in the past, but I find Airbnb sucks in their customer service! You can't talk to anybody or even send a message to Airbnb to bring up some issues!

Maybe when a company grows, the passion dies and the dollars & sense took over. If a better company were to compete with Airbnb, I would be glad to try the new company!

[educationforeveryone]

so much value video. Thanks a lot, Gustaf .

[ocanodiego]

She was sooo excited to see you 😂 super cool and useful video.